January saw a slight reduction in waiting times at Lincolnshire A&E departments after record waits in December.

Three in five patients were now seen within four hours, although this is still a long way below government targets.

The number of 12 hour waits were also significantly down.

According to published NHS data, 60.7% of all the county's A&E patients during January were seen in less than four hours.

The statistic looks at how long it takes patients to be admitted, transferred or discharged.

Just over 16,700 people attended that month.

The rate is an improvement from December when 58% were seen within four hours, when the county's emergency departments saw nearly 19,000 patients.

For the most serious type of emergencies, 45.2% patients were seen within four hours in January, up from 42.3% in December.

Type 3 were 94.8%, up from 92.3%. (There was no data reported for Type 2).

The number of patients waiting more than 12 hours have also fallen significantly from over 1,000 in December to around 650 in January.

A total of 16,721 people went to A&E in January, which was lower than both of the previous two months.

The national target is for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours.

The United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust were contacted for comment about the figures.

Lincolnshire hospitals have faced extreme shortages of beds recently, which caused difficulty in admitting new emergency patients.

Hospital bosses have previously called for improved organisation in the healthcare system so that patients can be discharged quicker.